ATHENS (Reuters) – Greek conservative leader Antonis Samaras said on Friday there were still hopes a government could be formed after Sunday’s inconclusive election to avoid a repeat poll.

“We are fighting to form a government and there are still hopes this can done Windows XP Key,” Samaras told his parliamentary group, adding that he welcomed the proposal of a small, moderate leftist party for a national unity government.

Earlier Windows 7 Product Key, he met Socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos Windows Anytime Upgrade, who has been given a three-day mandate to try to form a government.

(Reporting by Harry Papachristou; Editing by Peter Graff)

World

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This film was made to help with the fundraising appeal for the hospital at it’s launch on April 26, 2012. The film was premiered for the first time at this launch, at an event hosted by HRH Prince Andrew and Princess Eugenie at St James’s Palace.

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By MICHAEL FALCONE (@michaelpfalcone) and AMY WALTER (@amyewalter)

The Obama campaign is launching an aggressive new push to court Latino voters today. The centerpiece: a flight of Spanish-language ads hitting the airwaves in key battleground states like Nevada, Colorado and Florida. Meanwhile, the Romney campaign is stepping up its effort to “bracket” President Obama with a visit to Charlotte, N.C., the site of this summer’s Democratic National Convention, by Romney himself and a dramatic new video showcasing what the campaign says are the president’s broken promises. A Note exclusive:  Citigroup shareholders rejected on Tuesday a $14.9 million compensation package for the company’s CEO Vikram Pandit. It’s another reminder of the anger out there about Wall Street excess and, for Team Obama, a validation of their “fairness” argument. And, first there was Etch A Sketch, then there was the war over women, and this week the 2012 campaign has gone to the dogs. #ObamaDogRecipes became the latest Twitter trend last night.

THE NOTE: The new Obama ads focused on Latino voters, which take a positive view of President Obama’s record on the economy and education, come on the heels of the Republican National Committee’s announcement this week that they are stepping up their own Latino outreach efforts and Romney’s admission at a private fundraiser in Florida last weekend that “we have to get Hispanic voters to vote for our party.”

For all the talk about the gender gap, the Latino gap is one that has huge implications for this campaign as well.

For Team Obama Dragonfly Tattoo Machine, demographics is destiny. If they hold onto Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan in November, the Obama campaign can lose overwhelmingly white states like New Hampshire, Iowa, and Ohio and still get to 270. They do it by winning in states with significant minority populations like Colorado, Nevada, Florida, Virginia and North Carolina.

The latest Gallup poll showed Obama’s approval rating among Latino’s at 61 percent — he carried this group of voters in 2008 with 67 percent of the vote. Romney doesn’t need to carry the Latino vote, but he needs to improve from McCain’s 31 percent showing.

“While Governor Romney has begun his attempt to Etch a Sketch away his record on issues important to Hispanics,” Obama campaign spokesman Ben La Bolt said, “we have an easier task at hand — amplifying the President’s record of fighting every day to advance policies that Hispanics support, from health care reform, to promoting educational opportunity and comprehensive immigration reform.”

So, the next question is how Team Romney makes inroads here. A major speech? Intense surrogate work? The party has a deep bench of Latino elected officials who could step in like Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, New Mexico Gov. Susanna Martinez, and Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval.

 

PREBUTTAL: ROMNEY CAMPAIGN DESCENDS ON NORTH CAROLINA. Today Mitt Romney plans to deliver what the campaign is billing as a prebuttal speech to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. The symbolism is obvious: Romney will speak on a rooftop overlooking the Bank of America stadium where President Obama will address his party in September. The Romney campaign is previewing the former Massachusetts governor’s message in a chilling new web video out this morning called “President Obama’s Measure of Progress.” It uses clips from Obama’s 2008 convention speech when the president-to-be said: “We measure progress by how many people can find a job that pays the mortgage.”

The Romney campaign’s counter-attack: “Four years ago at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, then-candidate Barack Obama said that Democrats measure progress by whether people can find a job and provide for themselves and their families. In September, President Obama and the Democrats will meet for the Democratic National Convention in North Carolina, a state that has lost nearly 50,000 jobs since President Obama took office and has an unemployment rate of nearly 10%.” WATCH:

 

MOVE OVER SEAMUS, HELLO #OBAMADOGRECIPES. ABC’s Jake Tapper reports that much has been made about Mitt Romney, in 1983, putting his family dog Seamus in a kennel on top of his roof and driving from Boston to Canada, with said canine Seamus making his displeasure known in a rather scatological way. Democrats have signaled they have every intention of making sure the American people — especially dog-lovers – know the tale. In January, senior Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod tweeted a photo of the president and Bo in a car, with the snide observation: “@davidaxelrod: How loving owners transport their dogs.” The Romney campaign signaled last ngiht that they are not about to cede any ground when it comes to a candidate’s odd past with man’s best friend. The Daily Caller noted that in President Obama’s best-selling memoir, “Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance,” the president recalls being fed dog meat as a young boy in Indonesia with his stepfather, Lolo Soetoro.

The discovery that the president had eaten dog meat prompted wise-cracks on twitter (hashtag — #ObamaDogRecipes) and this tweet from Romney strategist Eric Fehrstrom, who re-tweeted Axelrod’s original message with a different take on the picture of the president and Bo. “@EricFehrn: In hindsight, a chilling photo,” he wrote. Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt tweeted in response:  “@BenLaBolt  What’s the next attack @EricFerhn and the RNC will surface on a 6-10 year old?”

@Timodc: Benji labolt stew. #obamadogrecipes

@EWErickson: Chow Chow . . . um . . . Chow #ObamaDogRecipes

 

NOTABLE:

–ABC Veepstakes Watcher JONATHAN KARL speculates about whether Mitt Romney might pick a woman for his #2. Karl advises us to keep an eye on N.H. Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, “arguably one of the most popular governors” in the country right now. WATCH:  Mr. Karl’s full Veepstakes list below).

–ABC News Political Director AMY WALTER explains how to interpret the various polls floating around about the presidential race: “Think of it like an ice skating judge. Throw out the highest and lowest scores and you come out with the right number. In this case, Obama is probably ahead by 3-5 points.”

VIDEO OF THE DAY: HOLLYWOOD NOMINATES A WOMAN FOR VEEP. Women support her, she’s got name-brand recognition, and she’s got a sense of humor — no wonder Julia Louis-Dreyfus has been tapped for vice-president … on the small screen anyway. The Seinfeld alum stars in HBO’s new series ‘Veep,’ where she plays a former senator who accepted the call to be vice president, only to find out the job is not all it’s cracked up to be. ‘Veep’ debuts this Sunday, and Top Line’s Amy Walter and David Chalian recently caught up with Louis-Dreyfus at the Washington, D.C. premiere — a town where everyone is obsessed with who presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney will pick as his ‘veep.’ WATCH:

 

THE BUZZ

ROMNEY TALKS TAXES. Sitting down with four families yesterday at a picnic table filled with pitchers of lemonade and bowls of potato chips, Mitt Romney vowed to overhaul the tax system but not raise taxes on the wealthy, reports ABC’s Emily Friedman. And he urged Americans to file their taxes, or like he did, get an extension. “So my view is that the right course for America is to keep our tax burdens down to encourage small businesses to grow and hire and to make it easier for middle-income families, but the president’s orientation is to raise taxes and I happen to think that will slow economic growth which is already slow and make it more difficult for us to create the jobs that people need,” said Romney. “I would actually like to reshape the entire tax system, alright, that is what I’d like to do, and to simplify the system as opposed to all these little baby steps,” explained Romney.

NOTED: TOP CONGRESSIONAL REPUBLICANS ENDORSE ROMNEY. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., yesterday endorsed Mitt Romney for president, according to ABC’s Sunlen Miller and John R. Parkinson. After the party’s weekly Senate policy lunch a reporter asked the Minority Leader if now he was ready to endorse Romney. “Yeah,” McConnell replied. “I support Governor Romney for president of the United States. And he is going to be the nominee.” McConnell’s announcement comes on the same day that Speaker of the House John Boehner endorsed Romney. “It’s clear now Mitt Romney is going to be our nominee,” Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters Tuesday morning. “I think Mitt Romney has a set of economic policies that can put Americans back to work and, frankly Tattoo Gun Equipment, contrast sharply with the failed economic policies of President Obama. And I will be proud to support Mitt Romney and do everything I can to help him win.”

VEEPSTAKES: CHRIS CHRISTIE’S LISTENING.  New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said yesterday he’s “not looking to become vice president,” but left the door open to a conversation about being Mitt Romney’s running mate if the presumptive GOP nominee comes calling, ABC’s Shushannah Walshe writes. “I love this job (governor) and I’m not looking to do it (vice president),” the governor said. “But I also think it is extraordinarily arrogant for you to say you won’t even listen to the nominee of your party – especially for me. It’s someone who I’ve been supporting since last October vigorously around the country – that I wouldn’t take a call from Mitt Romney,” Christie told reporters at a press conference here. He continued, saying if ”Mitt Romney calls and wants to discuss it with me, I will sit down and talk with Gov. Romney about it.”

KARL ROVE-BACKED GROUP RAKES IN CASH. From ABC News Number Cruncher Chris Good: American Crossroads GPS, the group co-founded by Karl Rove in 2010, has been fueled by massive donations since its inception, according to recently released tax documents. The group’s tax filings reveal mostly large donations, coming from either wealthy individuals or corporations. Since the group’s inception, 24 donations of over $1 million have accounted for 87 percent of its total fundraising. nOnly donations of more than $5,000 are disclosed to the IRS, but among those the average value has nearly equaled $800,000. In its most recent tax documents, dating back to last June, GPS’s largest donation amounted to $10 million; the second largest Tattoo Guns For Cheap, $4.3 million. The group has taken 12 donations of more than $2 million and two donations of $10 million or more since its founding. The group has raised at least $76.8 million in total.

TRUMP THROWS BIRTHDAY BASH FOR ANN ROMNEY. Donald Trump is known for throwing lavish parties, but at the birthday bash he threw for Ann Romney yesterday, it was the birthday cake that stole the show, notes ABC’s Amy Bingham. The cake, created by celebrity chef Buddy Valastro, of the TV show “Cake Boss,” is topped with a sugar-coated Romney riding atop a horse standing in a field of green frosting. Romney is an avid horseback rider and often goes riding to soothe the symptoms of her multiple sclerosis. The lifelike equestrian cake was showcased at Romney’s 63rd birthday party Tuesday afternoon at Donald and Melania Trump’s New York City home, on the 66th floor of the Trump tower. About 400 people were slated to attend the birthday party-turned-fundraiser, which a Trump spokesman told CBS News is expected to bring in $600,000 for the Romney campaign.

TED NUGENT REBUFFS DEMOCRATIC ATTACKS. Rock guitarist, conservative activist and Mitt Romney supporter Ted Nugent says he stands by his provocative rant against the Obama administration at last weekend’s National Rifle Association convention, despite mounting pressure from Democrats and an investigation by the Secret Service, ABC’s Devin Dwyer reports. “I spoke at the NRA and I will stand by my speech. It was 100 percent positive,” Nugent told the Dana Loesch radio show today.  “It’s about we the people taking back our American dream from the corrupt monsters in the federal government under this administration and the communist czars he’s appointed.” Nugent told a crowd of convention-goers that “if Barack Obama becomes the president in November, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year.”

 

THE LIST. Mitt Romney’s search for a vice presidential running mate has only just begun, but speculation among top Republicans and Romney’s close allies is well under way.  Here is how the list of potential running mates looks today, according to ABC’s Jonathan Karl:

Top Tier

Rob Portman – The popular Senator from the all-important state of Ohio.  He’s twice been a cabinet level official, as well as a member of the House and Senate.  He’s arguably the most qualified person on the list — and he helped Romney beat Rick Santorum in the Ohio primary.

Marco Rubio – His political skills are obvious as his rock-star status among conservatives.  And, at a time when Republican support among Hispanics has cratered, he’s a Cuban-American who could actually deliver his acceptance speech in fluent Spanish.  Rubio helps in Florida but also potentially in battleground states with big Hispanic populations like New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado.

Jeb Bush  –  And here is the surprise:  in my top tier, the former — and still popular — governor of Florida, Jeb Bush.  Romney has so much respect for Jeb Bush, he said late last year that he might not have run for president if Jeb Bush was in the race.  Friends of Romney say the admiration is real.  There is also obvious political appeal  — Jeb Bush remains a popular figure in Florida and among Hispanics.

Second Tier

Romney’s allies expect he will put a high value on executive experience in picking a running mate. That puts several Republican governors in play, including:

Chris Christie – He didn’t want to run for President, but he says he’d consider an offer to be vice president.

Mitch Daniels of Indiana also said no to a presidential run, but has left the door open to being a candidate for vice president.

Bob McDonnell of Virginia has strong conservative credentials, a military record and a solid approval rating in battleground Virginia. The big question for McDonnell, however, is support among women.

Also sure to get serious consideration: Congressman Paul Ryan –  A favorite for many conservatives and a favorite target for Democrats.  They campaigned together in Wisconsin and Ryan’s friends say he has quickly developed a good relationship with Romney.

Top Women Candidates

The last time Romney picked a running mate – when he ran for governor of Massachusetts – he picked a woman.   There aren’t many high-profile Republican women in elected office right now, but you can expect Romney to take a close look at those who are, starting with these two:

Kelly Ayotte –  She’s a Senator from New Hampshire and former state attorney general who knows Romney well.  The problem here is geographical diversity — it’s a stretch to imagine Republicans picking an all-New England ticket.

And, here’s a real long shot – Oklahoma governor Mary Fallin.  She’s also a former member of Congress and Lt. Governor and is considered now to be one of the most popular governors in the country.

There’s also Governor Nikki Haley, but her approval ratings have tanked in South Carolina and she has firmly denied interest in the job.  So has, by the way, New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez.

Wildcard

Romney may also look for non-politician with national security credentials.  The person who fits that bill as well as anybody:  General David Petraeus.   The two problems with this pick, though:  first, he’s currently got a job as President Obama’s CIA director and; second, nobody knows if he is actually a Republican.

And More

Others who will get a look include:

John Thune — South Dakota’s three electoral votes aren’t in doubt, but Thune was an early and enthusiastic supporter of Romney and a serious Republican player on domestic policy issues.

Jim DeMint — Mr. Tea Party, DeMint has experience and would go a long way toward shoring up Romney’s support on the right.

Tim Pawlenty — His presidential campaign didn’t go far, but Pawlenty, who was on John McCain’s shortlist in 2008, is a successful former governor from the Midwest who has become a real Romney loyalist.

 

WHO’S TWEETING?

@katephillips: NYT/CBS poll — First a.m. deets; Romney/Obama tied in head-to-head;  more tonight

@HotlineJosh: Two Hill centrists at serious risk of losing primaries in next month. There could be precious few mods left, post-2012

@MarkLeibovich: Dowd on feigning aggrievement to milk the moment…Phony Mommy Wars: 

@thegarance: “Mormon women remain twice as likely to be homemakers as non-Mormons, regardless of income levels.” 

@jonallendc: Best/worst thing about MLB package on DirecTV: watching political ads for Wisconsin Lt. Gov. and other races around the country.

 

 Check out The Note’s Futures Calendar: 

 

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* For breaking political news and analysis check out The Note blog:  ABCNews.com/Politics: 

 

Six months from now, we decide who will be the president of the United States (POTUS) until January 2016. We only get one vote and that’s unfair, because it comes down to take ‘em or leave ‘em.

Will the next POTUS attempt to marginalize the Second Amendment through Federal Court appointments? Will he encourage the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms to promote the transfer of guns through our southern boarder to Mexico to see where they end up? Will he support or veto National Concealed Carry legislation? Will he promote international gun controls through the United Nations or support the ability of people everywhere to be armed and capable of protecting themselves from abusive governments and ethnic cleansing, or will we be coerced into being the world’s policeman paid for by you and me? These are weighty questions and the answers have real consequences for our dwindling freedoms, liberties and budgets!

Will the next POTUS use the resources of the Department of Justice, the DEA, the FBI, and other federal law enforcement to arrest, prosecute, convict, and incarcerate medical marijuana patients and suppliers operating lawfully under their state legal systems? Will he continue to squander tens of billions of our hard earned tax dollars on the continuation of this racist, ignorant, counter-productive War on Drugs that has cost so much and returned so little? To be fair, it has brought us police corruption Machines Tattoo, a narco-terrorist state on our boarder (see above) and the highest incarceration rate in the world. Our efforts have resulted in lowering the cost of heroin and cocaine, while raising their purity; these have been the unintended but real consequences for our policies. Didn’t our experiment with prohibition of alcohol teach us anything useful that we can apply to this 40-year-old ongoing disaster? It’s bad enough to learn lessons the hard way; it’s criminally insane to repeat them.

A year ago it appeared that the well-polished Obama campaign machine would have kept the gun rights versus gun-control issue from bubbling up to the emotional political surface as a campaign issue. The shooting last year of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was successfully downplayed by the White House. Whatever their motivation, they were correct that neither law nor regulation will prevent deranged individuals like Jared Lee Loughner or a John Hinkley from obtaining a gun. No, the Obama nightmare on the compellingly powerful gun issue began inauspiciously enough when one Trayvon Martin was shot by George Zimmermann in Sanford, Fla. Stand your ground, retreat rules, castle doctrine; they are just words that have returned us to a front page discussion regarding the role of armed citizens in our society. This must cause a triple-dose Excedrin migraine headaches for the White House. The last thing the current occupier of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. wants is a vigorous, galvanized gun owner voting block come November in the critical battleground states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, New Hampshire and Florida. On the other hand, Romney is counting on it.

Also just a year ago, the state-based marijuana clinics, growers, dispensaries and patients were benefiting from a hands-off approach from the federal government. Someone over at Justice (funny how both of these newly created problems emanate from AG Holder’s office) decided that we’d better use our U.S. attorneys to clamp down on those dangerous marijuana clinics. Al-Qaeda has been largely eliminated — guess we need to have someone to keep fighting. Tenth Amendment be damned Tattoo Gun Buy! At the Drug Policy Alliance convention in Los Angeles in November, most of the marijuana reformers were yearning for the halcyon days of George W. Bush! Somebody at the Romney campaign needs to be alerted to the treachery the marijuana community (mainly Democratic leaning voters) feels toward this president and his feeble excuses to live up to his commitment to them on this issue. Heck, if he could do that to his supporters during the first term, imagine the concerns that gun rights supporters can now more validly and alarmingly conjure up from a second term? The run on guns has begun anew — the market is where people put their money where their fears are! The largely unorganized but potentially powerful voting block of marijuana reformers are getting hammered by the full force of federal law at the hands of the former senator from Illinois who admitted that he not only smoked — he actually inhaled — good heavens!

The president and his staff back in Chicago have plenty to stress about during their sleep. The question is will the Romney campaign understand the relationships between these two freedom- and liberty-related issues and pilot a course to maximize gun owners’ fear and marijuana reformers’ distrust?

What do you think?

Quick Poll Would you support reforming marijuana laws to protect the constitutional freedoms of the American people?

Yes Top Tattoo Machine, I support reforming the marijuana laws to better protect our constitutional liberties.

Yes, I support reforming the marijuana laws regardless of any protection of our liberties.

No, I oppose reforming marijuana laws even if it causes further erosion of our civil liberties.

No, I oppose reforming marijuana laws, but it won’t erode our liberties any further.

I’m not sure, it’s confusing and I’m open to learn more about this conflict between rights, law enforcement and liberty.

I don’t care if we become a totalitarian state as long as I get my cigarettes and my alcohol.

Marijuana is a gateway drug, just like milk is a gateway drink for future alcoholics.

VOTE

Share your vote on Facebook so your friends can take this poll

THE leaders of Greece's top three political parties today held talks with President Karolos Papoulias in a final bid to form an emergency coalition and avert new elections that could derail reforms.

The leaders of conservative New Democracy, socialist Pasok and Syriza, a radical leftist party that wants to reject Greece’s EU-IMF loan deal, arrived for the talks today, TV footage showed.

Syriza’s young leader Alexis Tsipras arrived first, followed by Pasok leader Evangelos Venizelos and New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras.

Smiling and looking relaxed, Tsipras sat himself opposite Venizelos and Samaras, who looked glum as the meeting began.

On his way into the presidential mansion, Samaras told reporters that he would aim for the formation of a two-year interim coalition government that will keep Greece in the euro.

"The Greek people have given us a mandate to cooperate in order to change policy whilst staying in the euro. A mandate to cooperate for a viable government at least until European parliament elections [in 2014]," Samaras said.

The meeting under Papoulias Bandage dresses sale, the Greek head of state, constitutes the country’s last hope to avoid fresh polls after May 6’s indecisive election.

The political impasse must be overcome by Thursday, when parliament convenes, or new elections will have to be called in June.

The president will later meet separately with heads of smaller parties elected to parliament, including the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn, his office said.

Papoulias on Saturday said there were "grains of optimism" that a coalition could be formed between the conservatives Replica Christian Audigier Clothes, the socialists and the small pro-European Democratic Left party, according to his office.

But the Democratic Left has previously said it would not join a government made up of only Pasok and New Democracy and which did not include Syriza, the radical leftist party that opposes the €240 billion ($311 billion) EU-IMF bailout for Greece.

The country’s international creditors have warned that no new loan payments will be forthcoming if Greece falters on structural reforms required to put the economy in order after decades of overspending by the state.

2010 Cadillac SRX – Click above for high-res image gallery Tattoo Supplies

The first generation Cadillac SRX brought General Motors’ premium brand into the crossover segment, providing better fuel economy compared to similarly sized SUVs while also delivering significantly improved driving dynamics. We bought into that first-generation, rear-wheel-drive SRX when we reviewed it way back in 2007, but the luxury car-buying public apparently wasn’t all that interested. Sales of the sharp handling SRX never took off, largely keeping Cadillac off of the luxury crossover gravy train long dominated by the Lexus RX 350.

Cadillac hopes to change its crossover fortunes with the introduction of the all-new 2010 SRX. This time out, the SRX is very different from the one it replaces, with a fundamental shift from a rear-wheel drive platform (with available all-wheel drive) to a front-drive setup (also with available AWD). Along with that shift in powered wheels Tattoo Supplies, the 2010 model goes with smaller, more efficient powertrains. Cadillac doesn’t try to hide the fact that the new SRX is gunning for the RX, but GM’s designers and engineers didn’t want to simply copy the strong-selling Lexus. Cadillac wanted its crossover to be more expressive inside and out, with state-of-the-art tech and superior driving dynamics. Does the new SRX have what it takes?

Follow the jump to find out.

Related GalleryReview: 2010 Cadillac SRX
Photos Copyright ©2009 Chris Shunk / Weblogs, Inc.

Everybody leads with news that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, confessed that he organized those attacks, and quite a few more, at a military hearing on Saturday at Guantanamo Bay. The Pentagon released a transcript of the closed hearing last night. “I was responsible for the 9/11 operation Herve Leger sale, from A to Z Buy Chloe Dresses,” Mohammed told the panel. Mohammed listed 31 terrorist plots he claimed to be “responsible” for as al-Qaida’s “military operational commander for all foreign operations around the world.”

Mohammed’s admission is hardly a surprise. In its final report, the Sept. 11 commission discussed several interrogation reports in which Mohammed allegedly took responsibility for the attacks. But this was the first time Mohammed faced any sort of legal proceeding and the first time he was able to make a long statement without interrogators. During the proceedings in Guantanamo Buy Herve leger strapless, Mohammed said some of his previous statements were made as a result of torture. At one point Mohammed compared Osama Bin Laden to George Washington. “If now we were living in the Revolutionary War and George Washington, he being arrested through Britain, for sure they would consider him enemy combatant,” he said.

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In the hearing, Mohammed expressed regret for some of the civilian deaths. “I’m not happy that 3,000 been killed in America. … I feel sorry even. I don’t like to kill children and the kids.” But he emphasized “the language of war is victims.” Mohammed’s statements were part of a series of closed hearings being held in Guantanamo for 14 “high-value detainees” that were transferred from secret CIA prisons.

The New York Times and Washington Post point out it’s not clear exactly how involved Mohammed could have been in all the plots he detailed. The Sept. 11 commission at one point described Mohammed as someone with extravagant ambitions who had a vision that was “a spectacle of destruction with KSM as the self-cast star, the superterrorist.” But the Los Angeles Timesquotes a terrorism expert, who says most of the plots he described did seem to have some leadership from Mohammed. USA Todaypoints out that the majority of the targets described by Mohammed “were not hit,” such as the Panama Canal, the New York Stock Exchange, and Big Ben. The Wall Street Journal says many of the plots “never got beyond the planning stage.”

The Mohammed confession managed to take away some of the spotlight from the growing controversy surrounding the Justice Department and the fired U.S. attorneys. USAT, for example Discount Karen Millen Dresses, led its early edition with news that Sen. John Sununu became the first Republican lawmaker to call for the ouster of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. “If I were the president, I would fire the attorney general,” Sununu said. In its final edition, the paper put the story inside.

The NYT and WSJ front, and everyone mentions Discount Chloe Dresses, President Bush saying that he still has confidence in Gonzales but he pointed out that “mistakes” had been made and he was “frankly not happy about” the way the Justice Department handled the controversy. Specifically, Bush pointed to the changing explanations that were given to Congress about the firings. In a Page One analysis, the Post says that the discrepancies between the e-mails released this week and the previous statements made by Justice Department officials “is quickly becoming the central issue for lawmakers.”

The WSJ Page One story says the controversy surrounding Gonzales “has exposed a potentially serious vulnerability—he lacks a significant base of support outside the White House.” Conservatives never particularly cared for Gonzales, but he always had Bush’s support. Now that Bush is an unpopular president, “having a power base of one” makes him more vulnerable.

In a separate piece inside, the WSJ points out that despite all the information that has come out about the firings, it is still unclear exactly why the U.S. attorneys were fired or why it even became a priority in the first place.  

The LAT fronts a dispatch from Indonesia that looks into Sen. Barack Obama’s childhood and finds that his connections to Islam may be deeper than previously thought. The LAT talks to his former teachers and some friends who say Obama was registered as a Muslim at both schools he attended. Some of his childhood friends say that Obama sometimes attended Friday prayers at the local mosque. “We prayed but not really seriously Replica White Herve leger,” said one of the friends. Obama’s campaign says the senator “has never been a practicing Muslim.” As the LAT points out, “a connection with Islam is untrod territory for presidential politics.”

The NYT fronts administration officials acknowledging that it will take longer for the Iraqi government to reach a series of goals that the Bush administration had said would be met by this month. Officials now say they expect the goals to be met by the end of the year. This delay means that the additional troops sent to Iraq might have to stay longer than initially envisioned.

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Rep. Peter King

If Rep. Peter King was concerned that his pet issue, Muslim radicalization, was in danger of being overshadowed by the debt crisis, he had a strategy: attack the New York Times. At Wednesday’s Homeland Security Committee hearings on the Somali terrorist group al-Shabaab, King called out the “vacuous ideologues at the New York Times”—an apparent reference to a Roger Cohen op-ed suggesting in the wake of the Norway attacks that anti-Muslim demagogues, including King, pose a threat of their own. “Let me make this clear to the New York Times and their acolytes in the politically correct, moral-equivalency media: I will not back down from holding these hearings,” he said.

Of course, getting headlines isn’t the same as addressing the issue. If King’s goal was to find real solutions to a real problem, his volley at the Times was a distraction. But Cheap DKNY Clothes, given how little of Wednesday’s three-hour hearing was devoted to proposals for curbing al-Shabaab recruitment Cheap Chanel Dresses, it’s worth asking whether that was really King’s goal. As it turns out, it wasn’t.

Sure, eventually the federal government will need to look at what it can actually do about the problem, King said. But for now, his aims are more modest: raise awareness about the seriousness of the threat, and empower moderate Muslims to speak out against terrorism without fear of stigma. That’s right: awareness-raising and empowerment. Maybe King has more in common with the politically correct left than he lets on.

So before we dismiss King’s hearing as disingenuous, or as an exercise in Islamophobic pandering, let’s judge it by King’s own standards.

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Awareness-raising? In this respect, it succeeded. As with King’s first radicalization hearing in March, much of the discussion on Wednesday was about the hearings themselves. King and his fellow Republicans were for them, the Democrats on the committee were against them, and the witnesses, for the most part, were pawns in the battle between the two. Unlike in March, however, this hearing addressed a problem both specific and demonstrably real enough that both sides could at least agree it was a problem. By the end, the evidence was clear that the threat was real, and the few Democrats who tried to downplay it came across as having their heads in the sand.

Al-Shabaab has in the past four years successfully lured a few dozen Somali-American (and Somali-Canadian—more on that below) young men to leave their homes and fly to Africa to join their murderous insurgency. Most have come from the Minneapolis area, whose Somali population is the nation’s largest. One, a 27-year-old named Shirwa Ahmed Cheap Karen Millen Dresses, became the first known American suicide bomber when he blew himself up in Northern Somalia in 2008. The worry among homeland security analysts is that al-Shabaab—or al-Qaida, with which it shares an ideology and some personnel—will use these recruits’ American citizenship to help them launch an attack inside the United States.

The number recruited to jihad is small, but large enough in proportion to the insular Somali-American population to be disturbing. And, as at least one witness pointed out, Somali-Americans themselves are among the people most concerned about the problem.

Which leads to King’s second stated goal: His hearings were supposed to encourage those anxious Muslim-Americans to stand up and voice their concerns. One problem: Wednesday’s hearing featured not a single Muslim-American. Yes, there was a Muslim-Canadian testifying that he felt empowered: Ahmed Hussen, a member of Canada’s Cross-Cultural Roundtable on Security, spoke intelligently about the cultural and economic challenges that confront Somali refugees in both countries. But if King’s hearings are having such salutary effects on Somali-Americans Discount Herve Leger v neck, was a man with “strong links to the American Somali community” really the best he could do?

King’s explanation, when I asked him about it after the hearing Buy Chanel Dresses, was that conscientious Somali-Americans are still too intimidated to speak out. But if that’s true, some of the blame must fall on King himself. At his first hearing in March, he nodded as a Somali-American named Abdirizak Bihi spoke passionately about his concern that mosque leaders weren’t sufficiently cooperative with authorities. But as soon as Bihi began to discuss the root causes of discontent among young Somali-Americans—broken families, lack of economic opportunity—King cut him off.

King displayed the same distaste for substantive analysis this time around. Luckily, a few of his counterparts on the committee, both Republican and Democrat, appeared interested in actually learning something. Rep. Dan Lungren, a Republican from California, quizzed both Hussen and Tom Smith Replica Marc Jacobs Dresses, police chief of St. Paul, Minn. Smith’s department has developed a series of programs to build trust in the local Somali community, including school-study programs, open gyms, and even camping trips for the youngsters. These types of touchy-feely initiatives can’t solve the problem entirely, of course. But they’re more concrete than King’s “empowerment” strategy.

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Sir Paul Stephenson

Members of the British Parliament grilled outgoing Scotland Yard commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson on Tuesday about his failure to uncover the breadth of the phone hacking scandal, as well as on his personal connections to Rupert Murdoch’s News International. Stephenson was knighted in 2008 for his service to the country. Is there any chance the Queen will revoke his knighthood?

It’s possible, but unlikely. Sir Paul hasn’t been charged with any illegal conduct (yet), and there’s no indication that the Queen is rethinking his knighthood. In most cases involving British citizens, honors are subject to revocation when an honoree commits a crime carrying a prison sentence of three months or more Discount DKNY Dresses, or if a professional organization in the field for which the honors were originally bestowed censures or expels the honoree. Revocation isn’t automatic in either case. First, an individual or group has to notify the Honours Forfeiture Committee of the transgression. The committee then holds a closed hearing, and decides the honoree’s fate. (There’s no opportunity for the honoree to defend himself.) The Queen technically makes the final call on whether to strip the knight or dame of the title Buy Hale Bob Dresses, but she generally follows the committee’s recommendation. At that point, the dissed honoree receives a letter announcing the decision and is expected to return the medal. Public shaming is also part of the process—the London Gazette publishes all revocations.

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British monarchs aren’t too hesitant to admit their mistakes. Five knights bachelor—the title held by Stephenson—have seen their knighthood revoked in the last century. Jack Lyons was the last British citizen to lose the title of knight bachelor in 1991, when he participated in a scheme to inflate the share price of Guinness.

Stephenson wouldn’t even be the first police officer to fall from knighthood. Terry Lewis, an Australian officer who Replica Hale Bob Dresses, like Stephenson, was both a knight bachelor and a recipient of the Queen’s Police Medal Discount BCBG Dresses, was stripped of his title in 1993. Lewis had taken kickbacks from men running a prostitution ring. (Although Lewis received his knighthood in Australia, he was part of the same knighthood system as Stephenson, because Queen Elizabeth II is the “fountain of honour” in Commonwealth nations. But Lewis’ revocation didn’t go through the U.K. Honours Forfeiture Committee.)

Sir Paul Stephenson wasn’t the only knight testifying before Parliament today. Rupert Murdoch was named a knight commander of St. Gregory by the Roman Catholic Church in 1998, even though he’s not a Roman Catholic. The Cardinal of Los Angeles reportedly recommended him for knighthood after he gave a sizable donation. Unlike British honors Replica Emilio Pucci Dresses, papal knighthood is often awarded for monetary generosity. Many have suggested that the Pope withdraw Murdoch’s knighthood, but there’s no indication the man with the big hat is considering it. A revocation of papal knighthood appears to be without precedent in modern times.

The Holy See wouldn’t be in this predicament if it had adopted a prescient British policy. In the 1990s White Herve leger sale, the U.K. Honours and Appointments Secretariat decided that it would not make a knight out of any newspaper editor or owner until he left the job.

Got a question about today’s news? Ask the Explainer.

Explainer thanks Samuel Heath of the U.K. Cabinet Office.

It’s going to cost up to $2 billion for Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. to take ownership of Volvo, but according to a new report out of BusinessWeek, that lofty figure is just the cost of entry. Volvo union members and the board have apparently told the Chinese automaker that it will need at least $1.4 billion to repair the storied Swedish automaker.

Union head Glenn Magnusson reportedly says the money will be needed for the next year’s product development, marketing Replica Roger Dubuis Watches, production and distribution. Magnusson tells BW that Geely has yet to demonstrate that it has the financials to sustain Volvo Where buy best Replica Patek Philippe Watches, adding “we haven’t seen anything yet and we’re not satisfied.”

Further Replica Jaeger LeCoultre Watches for Cheap, Volvo board member Magnus Sundemo feels $1.4 billion may be a little low, adding that Geely will need to invest “at least as much as they’re paying to buy us.” One reason Volvo insiders feel the company will need plenty of cash is to satisfy Geely’s desire to build up Volvo in China Richard Mille Replica Watches, with the goal of assembling 200 Buy Cheap Replica Sarcar Watches,000 vehicles per year in The Land of the Great Wall.

Ford Motor Company and Geely Fake Sinn Watches, who have been in talks seemingly forever, are looking to get a deal done by the end of March. Regulatory filings are expected to draw out the process of officially handing over ownership of the Swedish automaker to June 30 at the earliest.

[Source: BusinessWeek]